Saturday 8th April 2006

We were up and out of the hotel by 9.00 a.m. this morning. Breakfast was good in the hotel including pancakes and maple syrup and loads of pastries to choose from. Then we were onto a bigger coach than we had had the last couple of days. First was the visit to the Grand Mosque. It was very awe-inspiring – the ladies had to cover their heads and dress very modestly. Three of our group were not even allowed in! There were two men at the front gate saying who could go in and who could not, plus an Omani woman who rearranged my scarf for me, apparently the hair has to be totally covered, and the shoulders too if the scarf is large enough. The Mosque grounds were spotlessly clean, white/ivory marble with four minarets and a huge dome, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the second biggest in the world. It is a fabulous piece of Islamic architecture, and in the main hall there are elaborate chandeliers, stained glass windows, ceramic wall panels and rich carpets.

Next we were supposed to go to the Amouage factory but we arrived at a sweets factory! The driver did not know where Amouage is! After a slightly stressed exchange between Rhona, the driver and his company, it was decided we had gone too far down the road so instead of going back on ourselves to Amouage, we continued down the road for another half an hour or so to go to a fort. The road was a dual carriageway, and on the way there, a pick-up truck passed us with a camel riding in the back of it! That was a funny sight, the look of contentment on its face was something we all agreed we would never forget!

The Nakhal fort was very impressive, it had been built straight into the rock. It was very peaceful there, the only sounds were the birds singing, the gentle breeze and the calls to prayer from a nearby mosque for afternoon prayers. It was very atmospheric.

We left the fort and drove the short distance to a place where there were hot springs, a stream and a picnic area. It was an unspoilt, almost untouched area of natural beauty. I dipped my fingers into the spring water and was shocked to find it was indeed naturally hot! Stan filled his drinking water bottle from the pool. A few minutes later an Omani man took off his dishdashah and bathed in the waters. I said to Stan I bet he was glad he had filled his water bottle before the man got into the water!!

Rhona and a couple of the others went back to a small shop they had seen on the way, to buy some provisions and they came back with bread rolls, houmous in a can (!), cheese triangles, Pringles, something resembling Bombay mix, and water to drink, and we had saved various cakes and pastries and fruit from the breakfast buffet. So we had the makings of a BSP lunch in style with this picnic!

It was very peaceful and not for the first time, idyllic, sitting under the trees eating our lunch. There were goats trotting around up and down the rocky hillside next to where we sat, and we saw local women balancing water containers on their heads, and even one with a big, flat box balanced on her head. As we were finishing our lunch, some children walked past us on their way home from school with bundles of books. The girls wore navy and white with white headscarves.

We cleared away all the food, saving what was still OK for tomorrow when we were going to be picnicking again, apparently! We returned to the bus, stopping for an ice lolly from the shop before we set off again. I had a banana one. Then we drove back to Muscat to where the Amouage factory is, and the driver managed to find it this time. We went into the reception area where we were served Omani coffee with cardamom in tiny china cups, and a selection of Omani / Middle Eastern sweets such as baklava, etc. One tasted like a very soft shortbread and it was brown or white. They were very tasty. In the reception area were displays of all the Amouage perfumes and our guide told us they are planning to open a perfume museum too.

Our guide was a young woman, not Omani (she was wearing jeans and a blouse). Noorah, who we had met at the shop on the previous evening, was supposed to have been our guide if we had arrived during the morning as planned, but she had had to return to the shop. The girl who showed us round started by describing how Amouage had been set up around 1980, by a cousin of the Oman royal family. The Sultan regularly gives people gifts of the Amouage perfumes. She said the first perfumes they made were Amouage Gold for women and men, the original Amouage perfumes which were available in Europe in Harrods for example. They contain best quality Omani frankincense and are quite heavy and incense-like for European tastes. So then they launched Dia, versions of Amouage Gold for day wear (which is what Dia means), for women and men. These are lighter, a little more towards European tastes. The women’s perfume bottle is in the shape of a Mosque, and the men’s is a stylised version of the khanjar. She said that the creator of all their perfumes is Guy Robert, and the concentrate comes from Grasse. The next fragrance they launched was Ciel, for women and men, much lighter fragrances, much more geared towards European tastes. Most recently they have decided to cater for younger consumers with the launch of two more fruity perfumes, Eau D’Amouage and Esprit D’Amouage, a sporty one, and Arcus, for younger men.

Following this introduction we went to smell some of the perfumes. We smelled the Ciel first, as it is the lightest, it is a very nice ozonic floral, green and flowery (this is lovely, I tried it last night in the Amouage shop – it changes on your skin while you are wearing it.) Then we smelled the Dia – this is quite a classical chypre fragrance, quite rosey, powdery, Ombre Rose like. The Amouage Gold was smelled last of all. It is VERY incense-like, very interesting. But again the interesting thing about all these fragrances is how they develop into a symphony with the passing of time on the skin. The guide told us that Princess Diana in fact was a fan of Amouage Gold. We were then taken through past some offices to where they fill and pack the perfumes into boxes. Three or four Omani women and two or three Omani men were involved in various stages of filling the bottles using a filling machine. The rest of the assembly is done by hand, the bottles go into satin-lined boxes with a little card with the name of the lady who packed it. We were told how, a few weeks ago, a young woman had turned up at the factory and asked to see the lady who had packed her bottle of perfume. She had travelled all the way from Germany because she wanted to see her and say thank you!

We were shown a cool room where the concentrate is diluted with the alcohol and left to mature for 3-6 months depending on which fragrance it is. Our guide said we could not take photographs because they are packing a new fragrance which is about to be launched in May. But the operations manager, who had joined us by this time, said it was OK for us to take photographs. That was about all we saw and so after that we returned to the reception area. Noorah had returned from the shop by this time. We stayed chatting a little while longer. The Managing Director came out to talk to us as well – the word had got around that we were from the BSP, representing the U.K. perfumery industry!

Noorah gave each of us a box of sample perfumes to take away with us. She said we should visit the other Amouage shop, in a shopping centre nearby. We got back into the coach and followed Noorah in her car to the shopping centre where there is a Carrefour and it is all very new and modern. This Amouage shop was bigger and newer than the one in Sabco Centre! We stayed at the shop for about an hour, smelling more of the perfumes on the perfume bar, and some of the oil-based perfumes in decanters which are only available in their shops as they are for local people who are less keen on the alcohol-based ones we were looking at earlier. Some were based on Oud styles, or Oriental roses, or musk. One was called White Musk, but it was more what we would call a Dark Musk – it was quite nitro-musk like in style. There were spicy ones too, and patchouli-like ones, and vetiver.

After this we returned on the coach to Muscat, to go straight to the restaurant for dinner. It was an Indian restaurant called Woodlands. First we ate pakora, deep-fried vegetables in batter. Mine was green pepper. Next we had a rice pancake with a spicy mashed potato filling. The main course was a selection of curries, meat and chicken, prawns, rice, naan bread, mushroom bhaji, all really delicious. Well I did notice this restaurant has won “Best Restaurant” Award in 2003 from an Omani food magazine. Dessert was rus malai, a kind of milky pudding with a lump of something spongy in it which Sima said was curdled milk. (rus = juice, malai = cream). The creamy part tasted of nutmeg, but the spongy part, the texture was just too weird for me to eat! The meal ended with teas and coffees all round.

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